6.13.2005
graduation
Well, Matthew graduated yesterday morning. It was a true sight to see, with the RL boys walking in a monolith of navy blue blazers and maroon & black ties. The first speech by the head of school (brand new this year) was interesting, and while he trotted out a lot of very impressive SAT scores and AP exam results, one couldn't help but wish that he had instead noted individual accomplishments by students rather than making the whole thing anonymous. Indeed, it was an impressive list of achievements, but which could probably have taken place anywhere in New England. The names of the graduating seniors would have made it special.
Valedictory speech was amazing - truly a work of humor, thoughtfulness, and ultimately care and concern. Nicely done! The main speech was given by the new president of MIT, Susan Hockfield. President Hockfield gave a great speech, and from what I heard, she had a lot of practice - particularly just earlier that week at the Winsor School (sister school to Roxbury Latin). Indeed, a speech by the first woman president of MIT might have been very well received at Winsor (an all-girls institution) rather than RL, which is all boys. It was, though, a good speech, though as I might have implied, it was a bit off-target in terms of her audience.
Matt won a fantastic prize at the graduation, which was a huge surprise to my parents. My dad got kind of blubbery during the citation, which did not name Matthew until the very end. But certainly, you get a clearer and clearer picture of who it is during the citation itself. To get a graduation day prize is a wonderful honor, and I would certainly congratulate Matt on this. He truly is a special kid, and I'm really proud of him.
Unfortunately, RL is an ancient school with very little sense of proper temperature or air conditioning. I think it's probably a bad thing when the two most powerful trustees on the board present are mopping their faces repeatedly with their handkerchiefs. Brutal, oppressive heat. That's all.
We went to a couple of parties afterward, including one completely unrelated to the graduation. All of them were great - perhaps I'll say a bit more about them later.
Today I helped Diana cool down her apartment by driving her to Best Buy, driving an air conditioner back to her apartment, helping her carry it up the stairs, and helping her install the darn thing. Now, I'm pretty good with tools, but when all I have is a swiss army knife and the weather is hot, humid, and a sweltering high-80's, I think I got a little frustrated. Thank goodness Diana was there to talk me down. It was really good to see her - a few of my friends at the reunion were asking how I maintained a long-distance relationship. I think that I can say without a doubt that Diana is the only person with whom I would even *consider* doing this. Long distance is hard - the lack of physical proximity is difficult, as it the fact that we can't even call each other every day. But it works: we make sure that it does.
I have had the opportunity to eat everything that I wanted to eat on this trip back to the states. The list is as follows:
hot American bacon. English bacon is wonderful and smokey and delicious, but I miss American bacon. I can get it in England in the form of "crispy bacon", but only cold and in sandwich form.
maple syrup. Yes, the English have pancakes. And they put honey or chocolate sauce on them. This is wrong.
hamburger. Oddly, the English hamburger actually tastes different. The meat is softer and fattier and there are some really odd spices in the meat.
nachos. Mmmm... A big plate of hot nachos with lots of chilis on them. English people can't take hot food, and as a result, hot salsa to them is mild salsa to me.
American beer. I don't mean Budweiser, though I had a Bud as well. I'm talking about delicious microbrewed lagers with an overabundance of hops and bitterness. Lots of character, and a good antidote to English bitters.
Well, flying back to the UK tomorrow morning. I'm done packing and am about to run to bed.
Valedictory speech was amazing - truly a work of humor, thoughtfulness, and ultimately care and concern. Nicely done! The main speech was given by the new president of MIT, Susan Hockfield. President Hockfield gave a great speech, and from what I heard, she had a lot of practice - particularly just earlier that week at the Winsor School (sister school to Roxbury Latin). Indeed, a speech by the first woman president of MIT might have been very well received at Winsor (an all-girls institution) rather than RL, which is all boys. It was, though, a good speech, though as I might have implied, it was a bit off-target in terms of her audience.
Matt won a fantastic prize at the graduation, which was a huge surprise to my parents. My dad got kind of blubbery during the citation, which did not name Matthew until the very end. But certainly, you get a clearer and clearer picture of who it is during the citation itself. To get a graduation day prize is a wonderful honor, and I would certainly congratulate Matt on this. He truly is a special kid, and I'm really proud of him.
Unfortunately, RL is an ancient school with very little sense of proper temperature or air conditioning. I think it's probably a bad thing when the two most powerful trustees on the board present are mopping their faces repeatedly with their handkerchiefs. Brutal, oppressive heat. That's all.
We went to a couple of parties afterward, including one completely unrelated to the graduation. All of them were great - perhaps I'll say a bit more about them later.
Today I helped Diana cool down her apartment by driving her to Best Buy, driving an air conditioner back to her apartment, helping her carry it up the stairs, and helping her install the darn thing. Now, I'm pretty good with tools, but when all I have is a swiss army knife and the weather is hot, humid, and a sweltering high-80's, I think I got a little frustrated. Thank goodness Diana was there to talk me down. It was really good to see her - a few of my friends at the reunion were asking how I maintained a long-distance relationship. I think that I can say without a doubt that Diana is the only person with whom I would even *consider* doing this. Long distance is hard - the lack of physical proximity is difficult, as it the fact that we can't even call each other every day. But it works: we make sure that it does.
I have had the opportunity to eat everything that I wanted to eat on this trip back to the states. The list is as follows:
hot American bacon. English bacon is wonderful and smokey and delicious, but I miss American bacon. I can get it in England in the form of "crispy bacon", but only cold and in sandwich form.
maple syrup. Yes, the English have pancakes. And they put honey or chocolate sauce on them. This is wrong.
hamburger. Oddly, the English hamburger actually tastes different. The meat is softer and fattier and there are some really odd spices in the meat.
nachos. Mmmm... A big plate of hot nachos with lots of chilis on them. English people can't take hot food, and as a result, hot salsa to them is mild salsa to me.
American beer. I don't mean Budweiser, though I had a Bud as well. I'm talking about delicious microbrewed lagers with an overabundance of hops and bitterness. Lots of character, and a good antidote to English bitters.
Well, flying back to the UK tomorrow morning. I'm done packing and am about to run to bed.
